1243: One of the world's most highly regarded commercial lawyers, the Genoese Sinibaldo de Fieschi, becomes Pope Innocent IV. He is often regarded as the creator of the modern "fictitious person" view of corporations.

1519: Charles V is elected Holy Roman Emperor. Born and raised in the Netherlands, he said, "I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men, and German to my horse."

1635: France takes possession of Guadeloupe.

1712: Philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau is born at Geneva, Switzerland. He'll later have five children, and will put each in an orphanage, explaining that he'd be a poor father.

1880: Australia's most famous outlaw, bushranger Ned Kelly, is critically injured and captured after a siege at the Glenrowan Inn at Glenrowan, Victoria.

1914: The heir to the Austrian Empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Este, is assassinated at Sarajevo by a Bosnian Serb, touching off what will come to be known as the First World War.

1960: President Castro seizes all U.S. oil operations in Cuba, triggering an economic boycott that will last for 45 years.

1978: In an attempt to clear up the issues involved in college admissions decisions that take race into account, the U.S. Supreme Court decides Regents of the University of California v. Bakke.